PUBLIC outrage following attempts to cover up a serious accident at Japan鈥檚 prototype fast breeder reactor has sparked a major review of the country鈥檚 nuclear energy policy. Large quantities of sodium leaked from a cooling pipe in the Monju reactor last month, and the plant had to be shut down.
The cover-up began when officials of Japan鈥檚 Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (DONEN) told the Science and Technology Agency that they had discovered the leak at 10 am on 9 December, when in fact it had been discovered eight hours earlier.
Managers at Monju gave the agency a doctored copy of a video made after the leak, which showed small amounts of sodium on the floor, but excluded shots of larger quantities of sodium caking the walls, floor and pipes, and holes in a ventilation system duct burnt through with molten sodium.
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Explaining the editing of the video, DONEN鈥檚 director Takashi Ando said that managers at Monju were worried about the reaction if the extent of the accident had become known. Both the doctored and undoctored videos were later shown on national television. The governor of Fukui prefecture, where the Monju plant is, said DONEN鈥檚 deception had 鈥渟hattered public confidence鈥� in the government鈥檚 nuclear power policy. Three DONEN officials were demoted.
Last week, the Science and Technology Agency issued an interim report on the accident, saying it would suspend operations at Monju if serious defects are found. According to Japanese press reports, the agency is reviewing the whole issue of basing its nuclear power programmme on plutonium. Monju was to have been the first in a new generation of fast breeders designed to reduce Japan鈥檚 dependence on imported fuels.